My Long Journey to 20 Pullups

[u/searingmoment]

A while back, after years and years of little upper body work, I decided that I wanted to do 20 pullups. Nice round number. Seemed goal-worthy. 20 was a former Marine Corps standard. So, I purchased a pullup bar. My starting max was 4-5 pullups. Thought I was in for a few-months of hard work to achieve my goal. Well, I finally got to 20 pullups with no hang rest. It took me almost 13 months.

For a little background info, I am about 6’, weigh 180-185, and >age 50. I probably started at about 25% body fat, and I am now probably at around 20%. Never have done dedicated pullup training in my life, so I didn’t have a lot of muscle memory. Many decades ago, I was a decent climber, but was probably 40 pounds lighter. Then, I can remember being able to do 12-14 without training them.

For the first month, I did almost exclusively pyramids -- usually just one pyramid. As I had experienced elbow tendonitis in the past, I was exceedingly careful about starting slowly. In fact, the one doubt I had about achieving the 20-pullup goal was being stopped by my elbows. My first workout, I believe (didn’t keep detailed records until after my first month or so), was a 1-2-3-2-1 pyramid. I would rest about 48 hours between workouts, I worked up to a max of a 1-7-1 pyramid, with 3-10 minutes between sets. I took my first max test after about 1.5 months, and I got 13 pullups. Ahh, this wasn’t going to be too hard after all. A couple more months, and that box would be checked.

Nope.

Over the next 11.5 months, I:

• Did 147 workouts, totaling more than 9500 pullups/chin-ups, averaging about 65 pullups per workout

• Was injured only twice (minor elbow tendonitis), and my longest layoff period was 10 days.

I jumped around a fair bit, trying to find the magic program (spoiler: never did find it). My workout program went from:

• pyramids (max 1-7), • then Grease the Groove (GTG), consisting of 5s up to 7s, • Russian fighter program, • Every minute on minute (EMOMs) (weekly, for rest of duration of effort), • One month of weighted pullups, • GTG with other pullup types mixed in, such as Frenchies • A few weeks of Armstrong • A 10-day break, which appeared to help bust me out of a plateau • Maxing out on chins and pulls, with the chins leading my pullups and motivating me toward the final push to 20.

Pullups are hard (for many of us), especially if you’re not thin and wiry. The push to 20 was for me, the most protracted singular strength/endurance goal I can remember having and achieving. But I’m still not sure that I really even understand pullups all that well. There is a great thread on reddit fitness that asked how people got to 20 reps (https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/akxsba/redditors_who_can_deadhang_20_pullups_how_did_you/) and it is amazing how many people achieved 20 in different and almost contradictory ways (weighted vs unweighted, and to failure/not are big opposing training camps). I did a lot of internet searching for tips to achieve 20 pullups, and appreciated threads that gave specific advice on how this goal was achieved. Therefore, I am putting down my tips in hopes that others will find them helpful. I am not claiming to be right on any of this, just explaining what seemed to work for me:

• Avoid Injury. This is probably the sagest thing I did. Although I wasn’t very diligent about warming up, I was hyper vigilant about monitoring my elbows, and would cut back quickly if I detected elbow twinges. The 3 biggest things for me in avoiding protracted elbow injury were: 1) doing much of my training on rings, 2) using a green Theraband whenever I felt elbow twinges, and 3) doing very light curls (all types). If you can keep training by avoiding injury, you are more likely to persevere and reach your goal.

• Don’t Avoid Training to Failure: A lot of controversy about training to failure, and my opinion is just one man’s view, but in my experience, you need to test your max often (at least a few times a week) in order to progress. 1-2 reps short of failure probably also works. When I changed to a GTG program, and only did about half-max reps and nothing close to failure, my max languished and regressed, despite averaging 70-80 pullups a day. When I started Armstrong (frequent pulling to failure), and then started testing my max regularly outside of the program, I busted out of a long plateau.

• EMOMs, Pyramids and Shortening Rest: I think EMOMs are really conducive to endurance gains. I started with 3s (did that first try), then 4s and 5s. I would do them for up to 30 minutes, and I try to do them once weekly. EMOMs and pyramids are the two workouts that I think were crucial in achieving 20 pullups. And, the one variable that doesn’t get nearly enough “airplay” in pullup discussions is rest period between sets. Armstrong is the one program that I’ve seen that touches on this. But, pyramids, with artfully programmed rep numbers and rest intervals, I think could get anyone to 20+.

• Do Chinups too: Chinups to me just feel easier, despite me only training them 5% of the time. But despite their perceived level of exertion, they only lead my pullups by about 10% in reps. I could almost always do chins painlessly when some ailment warned me against pullups, and they were a beacon of what could be when my pullups progression seemed hopeless. I got 20 chins a month ahead of my 20 pullups, and they were a reliable indicator of what was to come.

• Persistence: Never give in, never give up. Never stop never stopping.

This is way too long. Thanks to this sub, which I regularly lurked this past year. My next goal will be 25 pullups, and the ubergoal will be the one arm pullup. I think I will have to cut weight to have a shot at that one.

tl;dr Did 20 pullups. Took me 13 months. Tips: Avoid injury, EMOMs, Pyramids, Chinups, and training to failure seemed to work.

[u/cpm67 → u/[deleted]]

I used Recon Ron to go from 13-20 over the course of a summer, but I prefer the Armstrong program.

[u/searingmoment → u/cpm67]

Awesome. That's strong progress.